Absa Christine Sissoko is a Brussels-based artist whose art gravitates around topics of identity, mental space and self-celebration. We’ve invited them to KMSKA where, while being surrounded by sounds of musicians warming up before their Late Night performance, we had a chat about their work, how works displayed at the museum resonate with their identity, and how an institution can help one to discover who they really are.
Can you tell us about your artistic journey and how you built up your practice?
In the beginning, I was really obsessed with facial features in movies. I started off with drawing and then I moved to painting. When I went to art school I had to expand my practice and think a bit outside of the box. I started experimenting with paintings and sculptures, which eventually became installations. Over the past 5 years, I was mostly busy with depicting my mental state and trying to convert things that drain me into something aesthetically pleasing. I’m drawn to creating both aesthetic and therapeutic circumstances, in which expressing my identity plays a vital role.
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I’m drawn to creating both aesthetic and therapeutic circumstances, in which expressing my identity plays a vital role
What were your recent works, and how did your artistic journey forge your aesthetics?
My most recent work is an installation called ICU (Intensive Care Unit). In the creative process, I became my own intensive care unit, and I tried to convey that metaphor by using copper (CU) coloured PVC tubes as the main material. Back in the days, it was used a lot more for heating systems in buildings that would pump gas and water through the pipe structures, which in this case is a symbolic depiction of a basic structure in which I process what enters my own mental space and make it more fluid.
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Over the course of the last 2 years, I’ve experienced the most inner conflicts within my artistic practice. The art school where I went had certain expectations of me, which I didn’t necessarily identify with. My teachers couldn’t help but to sometimes perceive me as an Afropean student, and therefore some things I made were interpreted as allegedly political, without my intention of implementing this. It’s hard to express your identity while having the fear of being reduced to the colour of your skin. I was born and raised in Belgium, so talking about my cultural upbringing being interracial in an academic context, where the tendencies to reduce me to stereotypes are very present, can feel oppressive to my personal and artistic development. After losing the aftertaste of academic shame I started to rediscover my artistic curiosity and draw what pleases me most.
And what pleases you the most?
I am drawn to aesthetics that are considered unconventional or even ‘ugly’ in an academic sense - I love kitsch art a lot, but never felt comfortable expressing this because of social conventions. What also pleases and inspires me is my queer and POC community.
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What’s your relationship with the old masters shown here, and how can an institution like KMSKA be inspiring for forging one’s identity?
What I like about the old masters is that they can serve as a basis for navigating around conventions - what those conventions were and what they meant, as well as how you can or cannot relate to them. Oftentimes their art can also be perceived politically. Sometimes the old masters can serve as an example of how things shouldn’t be today, because of how the context has changed. I’m always very nostalgic when I come to institutions like that. Because of school, I spent a lot of my teenage years in museums, but then outside of school I always felt compelled to look for artists that are not necessarily represented (queer, POC, female artists). This approach makes you not only aware but also inspires you to look at their works thoroughly from different angles which is good for your education, regardless if you’re an artist or not. One must find their own adventure in discovering different perspectives, as well as seek ways to deconstruct some.
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One must find their own adventure in discovering different perspectives, as well as seek ways to deconstruct some
We’re now looking at Oscar Jespers’ De Man met de Trui. What do you think about it?
I love its roughness. I don’t necessarily favour sculptures that are very polished. It’s great when you can see the physical traces of an artist in their work. To me it feels almost like time travel - it gives me goosebumps to see the physical residue of the creator’s identity in a physical world. You also do not need too many literal details to see or imagine what is being portrayed, which makes it interesting.
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What other theme displayed here resonates with you and your work the most?
I think Jesus’ death is one of the scenes surrounding him that has always fascinated me most. I feel like there are still a lot of questions to be asked artistically about it - what does it mean to be religious? To an extent, Western art produced a depiction of Jesus which is in essence not realistic. Knowing his ethnicity one can get the impression that his depictions are like masks - specifically, masks of the Western world. I myself make bright abstract macabre masks with the intention of exploring and defining my identity, which in a very twisted way resonates a lot with this subject: the death of a worn mask and the rebirth of another.
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As a New Master, what is actually your take on this term?
For me, the word ‘master’ has actually a very spiritual meaning. Of course, in many contexts, the word has very bourgeois and posh connotations. To me, however, to be a master means to be in control of your own identity and to give voice to your own thoughts. In other words, to get to know and profoundly understand all aspects of your personality.
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<div class="editorial-banner"> <div class=“editorial-credits”> @achrisi_ & @absasissoko / @kmska_museum <br/> Find out more about the KMSKA Late Night Nocurnes </div></div>
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